Ars drives a Model S for 500 miles to try to find the soul inside the machine.

Further Reading

My videographer Steve uttered a single strained curse as inertia's invisible hand pushed us back into the leather with enough force to knock the camera mount out of alignment. The Tesla's acceleration was instant, ludicrous, neck-snapping—more appropriate for a roller-coaster than a car. The camera's point of view was now skewed sideways from this morning's careful alignment, but Steve didn't reach for it because we had just gone from 70 miles per hour to north of 100, and we were still going strong.

I should have slowed down, because I-10 out west of Houston is the natural habitat of humorless state troopers, but I didn't. The breathtakingly flat torque curve of the Model S begs to be explored. The pedal under my right foot was just pure magic. No shifting of gears or howling engine here—the only sound was the ever-increasing rush of air as we hurtled toward the car's 130 mph limiter.

And as we accelerated, my prejudices about electric cars were forcibly rearranged.

For those who love cars, "soul" evokes the history-drenched cities where great marques were born—Maranello, Stuttgart, Detroit—and sepia-toned pictures of soot-covered men in overalls and goggles climbing out of cigar-shaped race cars. Soul is the bear-throated howl of a V8 working up through the gears, the scream of 12 cylinders at redline that shakes you in your seat at the track, the rushing 200 mile-per-hour wall of wind that smells like oil and rubber. It's tradition and pride.

Timeless cars like the Porsche 911 or the Ferrari F40 undoubtedly have soul. They are precise and unforgiving machines, requiring skill to drive well even in their modern incarnations, though that skill is rewarded with supernal experiences. But souls aren't confined to supercars. Cars like Nissan's iconic S30 Fairlady Z, Volkswagen's original Beetle, or Subaru's ever-mutating, turbocharged Imprezas are each more than the sum of their parts.

But an electric car has no burbling cylinder-filled heart, no throaty exhaust to inspire little kids to mimic engine noise. Can an electric car flicker behind your eyelids, holding your thoughts even while you're not driving it?

I feel a thrill when looking at beautiful examples of automotive craftsmanship like a BMW M3 or an Audi S5 or an Acura NSX. But the electrics and hybrids produced by the big players are as exciting as cold oatmeal mixed with three-days-dead road kill. Think machines like the execrable crap-box Prius, Honda's truly awful Insight, Nissan's clock-stoppingly ugly Leaf, and Chevy's Volt, which has all the personality of a beige carpet sample square.

At least when Doc Brown built a time machine out of a DeLorean, he did it in the right spirit. Similarly, if we're going to be driving high-tech electric cars, why can't they be made with some style?

An iterative journey

The Model S isn't the first all-electric vehicle from Tesla Motors—that title goes to the Tesla Roadster. The Roadster was essentially a Lotus Elise with its guts replaced by electric gear. When the car finally debuted in 2008 after years of production delays, it served as a very expensive, very exclusive test platform for the battery and drivetrain technologies that would eventually make their way into the Model S.

The key to developing an electric car that doesn't suck, it turns out, is iteration. The Roadster had a limited production run of 2,500 vehicles (the total number of Elise chassis that Lotus agreed to sell Tesla); the line underwent recalls and updates until production ended in 2012. The technology that Tesla crammed into the little coupe evolved into the larger battery, longer range, and tuned electronics in the much larger Model S sedan. Building the Roadster also allowed Tesla to test out more than the "electric" part of the equation. And as a new auto manufacturer, the company needed to figure out the "car" part as well.

The long view taken by Tesla in bringing the Roadster to market before the Model S is now paying dividends. No trace of amateurishness clings to the Model S, a beautiful automobile that does exactly what Tesla Motors says it will do. Once you get past the phenomenal acceleration, it's a car. There's no hypermile gamification built into the dashboard, no welding of internal combustion engine with batteries, nothing to pull you out of the I-am-driving-a-car experience. Even charging it—something that I had to pay an inordinate amount of attention to while testing the Model S—wouldn't have been an issue if I owned the car and had a 240 V outlet (or one of Tesla's high-amp wall connectors) to plug it in every evening.

Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Lee_Ars

356 Reader Comments

What I would like to see is a lower-power model, say 100 or 150bhp that can travel twice as far. For someone who spends a lot of time on the highway, horsepower really doesn't matter all that much once you're at cruising speed, as long as you have enough to keep the car rolling. The extra range, however, would be very welcome.

Due to the flat torque curve and zero time spent shifting gears, even a 150bhp model would feel plenty responsive for city driving. It would probably deliver more torque at low speed than even a 250bhp gas engine.

Well, 2015 is when the new more consumer price friendly option is revealed. So, you may just get what you want, mhall1. Also, Tesla is releasing a new crossover model along with a new sports model besides the original roadster. Should be interesting. If Tesla can get pricing options to reasonable consumer levels ($20,000 - $30,000 max with leases no more than $299/mo), things will start getting interesting.

I certainly see the attraction and we'd love to have an electric car but the "refueling" options so far, or rather the time they take, are simply not good enough yet. I'm sure in the next decade that will (have to) change because otherwise full electric vehicles will not be interesting enough for a mass audience.

Doesn't really matter if it's a good car. The price will be offset by subsidies at purchase and Tesla will get carbon offset credits it can sell to the other car makers. The only way Tesla makes money is if the Government controls the market and pays a huge chunk of the bill.

I'm pretty sure car makers will make sure none of their carbon offset money is funding a competitor. They will buy carbon credits anywhere and everywhere else.

Also, I doubt tesla will ever receive as much compensation as GM received in the recent financial crisis.

Well, 2015 is when the new more consumer price friendly option is revealed. So, you may just get what you want, mhall1. Also, Tesla is releasing a new crossover model along with a new sports model besides the original roadster. Should be interesting. If Tesla can get pricing options to reasonable consumer levels ($20,000 - $30,000 max with leases no more than $299/mo), things will start getting interesting.

Possibly. But I'll bet the decreased power will also come with a decreased capacity.

Great review and video. Wonder how well the battery life would hold up in Canada in the winter with heated seats and the heater going full time for four months of the year? Has Tesla published any stats for cold weather battery life?

What I would like to see is a lower-power model, say 100 or 150bhp that can travel twice as far. For someone who spends a lot of time on the highway, horsepower really doesn't matter all that much once you're at cruising speed, as long as you have enough to keep the car rolling. The extra range, however, would be very welcome.

Due to the flat torque curve and zero time spent shifting gears, even a 150bhp model would feel plenty responsive for city driving. It would probably deliver more torque at low speed than even a 250bhp gas engine.

Why would you want lower power? This isn't like gas engines, where high-horsepower engines come with all sorts of additional losses and get terrible mileage even if you baby them. You can have a high-power electric motor that still operates efficiently when run at lower power levels. That's what's so cool about electric cars, like the Tesla - the availability of high horsepower when you want to have fun does not compromise efficiency the rest of the time.

Anyway - just buy a Chevy Volt, it's exactly what you want, as long as you're driving around 40 miles per day. 150 hp electric, and then a gas generator if you need to drive further.

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't like leather seats or wood detailing (although the latter could be from flashbacks to the hallways of my university's physics building...)? They might be expensive, but they're not really luxurious. To me, anyways. Give me cloth and plastic any day.

What I would like to see is a lower-power model, say 100 or 150bhp that can travel twice as far. For someone who spends a lot of time on the highway, horsepower really doesn't matter all that much once you're at cruising speed, as long as you have enough to keep the car rolling. The extra range, however, would be very welcome.

Due to the flat torque curve and zero time spent shifting gears, even a 150bhp model would feel plenty responsive for city driving. It would probably deliver more torque at low speed than even a 250bhp gas engine.

Why would you want lower power? This isn't like gas engines, where high-horsepower engines come with all sorts of additional losses and get terrible mileage even if you baby them. You can have a high-power electric motor that still operates efficiently when run at lower power levels. That's what's so cool about electric cars, like the Tesla - the availability of high horsepower when you want to have fun does not compromise efficiency the rest of the time.

Anyway - just buy a Chevy Volt, it's exactly what you want, as long as you're driving around 40 miles per day. 150 hp electric, and then a gas generator if you need to drive further.

I would imagine that a lower hp motor would weigh less. How much less? Well, that's a good question. I'm sure you're not going to double the range with a smaller motor. But maybe some savings?

Those 18650 batteries are very common. Most high end flashlights use them.Your 12v max li-ion power tools are powered by 3 of them, and you 20v max li-ion tools have 5. They are quite a bit bigger than an AA cell 0 about twice the volume. The high power ones, like the ones used in power tools can put out 2A. (Those little 12v drills have quite a kick!)

The thing is they are about $4 a piece, minimum, even in huge quantities. That's why new drill batteries cost so #@$%^ much.

So if there is 7000 in the battery pack, that is a $28,000 battery pack. These batteries haven't changed price in years - its the exotic materials that cost the $ so economies of scale are difficult to apply...

Doesn't really matter if it's a good car. The price will be offset by subsidies at purchase and Tesla will get carbon offset credits it can sell to the other car makers. The only way Tesla makes money is if the Government controls the market and pays a huge chunk of the bill.

First of all ZEV credits are not carbon credits. Second of all, Tesla only gets around 10k per car in zev credits. Estimated to drop to 4-6k in Q3 and to 0 by end of the year. And that is only for cars sold in California.

Tesla actually already made a gross profit on selling cars even without the credits.

So if there is 7000 in the battery pack, that is a $28,000 battery pack. These batteries haven't changed price in years - its the exotic materials that cost the $ so economies of scale are difficult to apply...

This sounds like a great car, but it isn't the car of the future.

Actually the price of Li batteries is decreasing by about 3-4% per year, while their capacity is increasing (whether that is passed on to customers for things other than vehicles is another question, but the plug-in prices have dropped significantly already since their introduction because of this). In a single year 3% won't make any noticeable difference. But over time, this compounding price decrease / capacity increase adds up. This is expected to continue through this decade and beyond (both for price and capacity) - and that is without any big breakthroughs that commercial money is being poured on in large amounts these days.

By 2020 (3% per year etc.) - even without big breakthroughs - it'll make Volt like plugins no brainers for buyers of cars $20k and over (especially when you consider the gasoline that comes through that plug averages $1.25 gallon in equivalence and often can be had much cheaper at night in many states).

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't like leather seats or wood detailing (although the latter could be from flashbacks to the hallways of my university's physics building...)? They might be expensive, but they're not really luxurious. To me, anyways. Give me cloth and plastic any day.

Well, 2015 is when the new more consumer price friendly option is revealed. So, you may just get what you want, mhall1. Also, Tesla is releasing a new crossover model along with a new sports model besides the original roadster. Should be interesting. If Tesla can get pricing options to reasonable consumer levels ($20,000 - $30,000 max with leases no more than $299/mo), things will start getting interesting.

Possibly. But I'll bet the decreased power will also come with a decreased capacity.

Tesla said the Gen III will start at a base range of 200 miles and have room for upgrades to higher capacity. It will be smaller in size than a Model S which is a full sized sedan.

Except for some minor inaccuracies (Not all batteries in the pack are in series. Not every automatic transmission has a torque converter. The not wrong but slightly confused talking about power, rpm and torque. Unit mixups about kW and kWh...) this was a really interesting article.

I'm looking forward to the future of electric cars. It's really nice to think that 80% of the model S is going to be available for half the price in just some years. And at that point charging stations will probably be much less of a concern.As much as I love gasoline engines, I might not miss them.

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't like leather seats or wood detailing (although the latter could be from flashbacks to the hallways of my university's physics building...)? They might be expensive, but they're not really luxurious. To me, anyways. Give me cloth and plastic any day.

The wood detailing is definitely optional. Not sure about leather seats.

The slanted glass fastback hatchback is a show stopper for me. Poor for vision and it is a solar heater.I'm long past thinking sports cars are cool. Yeah, I have a guzzler v8 SUV, which does see dirt roads, unlike most SUV drivers. So square off the back for me and I would have something useful for driving around town.

I don't think you have to hit $30k for volume sales. It would sell around $50k if well equipped at that price. An electric car should be cheap to maintain, so a little more upfront money is reasonable.

I see these model S often around the San Francisco Bay area. That big arse LCD has got to go. Those Telsas look like they are glowing when driving at night. I like the car interior to be dark. I'd also go for OLED, even if smaller, to avoid LCD washout.

Those 18650 batteries are very common. Most high end flashlights use them.Your 12v max li-ion power tools are powered by 3 of them, and you 20v max li-ion tools have 5. They are quite a bit bigger than an AA cell 0 about twice the volume. The high power ones, like the ones used in power tools can put out 2A. (Those little 12v drills have quite a kick!)

The thing is they are about $4 a piece, minimum, even in huge quantities. That's why new drill batteries cost so #@$%^ much.

So if there is 7000 in the battery pack, that is a $28,000 battery pack. These batteries haven't changed price in years - its the exotic materials that cost the $ so economies of scale are difficult to apply...

This sounds like a great car, but it isn't the car of the future.

What exotic materials? Lithium-Ion uses all common materials and the prices have been dropping at a rapid rate. You must note that 18650 is just a form factor and prior drills uses NiMH than Li-Poly and Li-ON. The price of Li-ON 18650 cells have dropped rapidly over the last 2 decades. They are not cheap by no means of course and the price can also vary depending on the chemistry of the LiON cells.

Great review and video. Wonder how well the battery life would hold up in Canada in the winter with heated seats and the heater going full time for four months of the year? Has Tesla published any stats for cold weather battery life?

Lithium batteries start to malfunction at low temperatures. Don't buy any car with a lithium battery if you expect to drive it in canada's winter, unless it has some kind of technology to keep the battery warm - which the tesla doesn't have.

Malfunctioning shouldn't be an issue - Tesla *does* have battery climate control while the car is running.

Admittedly it isn't enabled while the car is off, but unless it's -60* C outside, the battery can still provide enough charge to run the heater.

Lithium batteries start to malfunction at low temperatures. Don't buy any car with a lithium battery if you expect to drive it in canada's winter, unless it has some kind of technology to keep the battery warm - which the tesla doesn't have.

After how long and how cold? They did a multi-day test run in Minnesota, the coldest place in the continental US and apparently found no issues.